SONGS    OF  THE    SIERRAS. 

BY  JOAQUIN   MILLER. 


Extracts  from  some  Reviews  of  the  New  American  Poet, 

which  have  appeared  in  the  English  Literary 

Journals— the  Criticisms  oFsome  of 

the  most  learned  Critics  of 

the  day, 

"ENGLISH  criticism  is  discerning  and  deliberate.  Books  by  new 
authors  are  sometimes  put  aside  because  their  authors  are  unknown : 
but  if  a  work  is  read  at  all,  it  will  be,  except  in  very  rare  instances, 
candidly  and  fairly  criticised,  and  public  opinion  will  tolerate 
neither  undue  severity  nor  undue  praise.  English  criticism  (except 
perhaps  that  of  a  few  of  the  lowest  journals,  which  is  not  worth 
having)  is  not  to  be  bought  with  favors  or  with  gold.  Faults  are 
not  absent  from  it;  but  venality  or  absolute  unfairness  is  not  of 
these.  If  ever  they  become  so,  the  public  will  quench  the  critics. 

"  Miller  came  to  London  friendless,  without  influence,  without 
reputation.  His  book  won  for  itself  the  admiration  of  some  of  the 
best  and  wisest  of  the  land.  Many  of  the  most  favorable  notices 
which  have  appeared  in  the  chief  Journals  and  Reviews,  have  been 
written  by  the  most  trained  and  cautious  hands  in  London.  The 
men  who  have  clustered  about  him  have  won  the  highest  fame  the 
country  can  bestow  through  years  of  honorable  and  splendid  toil. 
Their  opinion  stands  as  the  index  of  the  world's  opinion.  Higher 
favors  the  world  has  not  to  bestow  than  their  friendship  and 

esteem." 

GEORGE  FRANCIS  ARMSTRONG. 

(l) 


MR.    MILLERS 

SONGS  OF  THE  SUN-LANDS. 


Selections  from  some  criticisms  of  Mr.  Miller's 
new  volume  of  Poems,  which  have  appeared  in 
the  English  journals. 

Front  the  Atheneeum. 

"  Songs  of  the  Sun-Lands  "  is,  it  will  be  seen,  similar  in  character  to  "  Songs 
of  the  Sierras,"  previously  published.  The  same  kind  of  materials  is  used,  and 
the  same  kind  of  faults  and  excellence  in  their  use  is  observable.  Mr.  Miller's 
muse  in  this,  its  second  flight,  has  taken  the  same  direction  as  in  its  first  essay, 
but,  upon  the  whole,  we  think,  with  a  stronger  wing.  The  new  work  gives  evi- 
dence that  the  author  has  not,  as  was  feared,  intensified  his  former  mannerism, 
but  has  profited  by  the  advice  of  friends  and  critics. 


Front  the  Academy. 

Mr.  Miller  has  a  faculty  of  making  himself  felt  through  what  he  writes,  and  we 
quit  his  poems  with  a  mingled  sense  of  admiration  and  regret :  admiration  of  his 
really  great  powers ;  regret  that  he  seems  unable  to  pursue  one  of  two  courses  in 
their  application,  &c. 

From  the  Westminster  Review. 

We  some  time  ago  called  especial  attention  to  this  new  American  poet's  first  work, 
"The  Songs  of  the  Sierras,"  nor  do  we  repent  of  our  criticism.  He  has  perhaps 
lost  something  of  that  boldness,  and  that  flavor  of  originality,  which  in  a  certain 
way  reminded  one  of  Walt  Whitman  without  his  special  weaknesses  and  extrava- 
gances. Still,  to  counterbalance  this  loss,  he  has  gained  a  certain  polish.  Yet 
here  we  perceive  a  danger.  But  Mr.  Miller  must  be  careful  that  he  does  not  buy 
elegance  at  too  dear  a  price.  We  ourselves  prefer  the  roughness  of  the  backwoods 
of  America  to  all  the  drawing-room  conventionalities  of  Europe.  We  prefer  Mr. 
Toaquin  Miller's  native  reed-pipe  to  any  guitar.  The  most  perfect  poem  in  th« 


present  collection  is  without  doubt  "  The  Isles  of  the  Amazons."  Here  we  see  Mr 
Miller  at  his  best.  Here  he  has  put  forth  his  real  strength.  It  is,  in  short,  a 
poem  which  will  live. 


From  the  Standard, 

No  poetry  of  the  present  age  has  any  claim  to  the  unconventional  freedom,  the 
Supreme  independence,  the  spontaneity,  the  bold  and  vigorous  originality,  the  all- 
pervading  passion,  the  unresting  energy,  and  the  prodigal  wealth  of  imagery  which 
stamp  the  poetry  before  us.  ...  For  further  specimens  of  Mr.  Miller's  present 
poems  ve  must  send  our  readers  to  the  volume  itself,  which  is,  with  all  its  faults,  a 
very  garden  of  delight,  adorned  everywhere  as  it  is  with  the  fairest  blooms  of  fancy, 
and  breathing  everywhere  as  it  does  of  the  sweetest  and  purest  inspirations  of  the 


Front  the  London  Sunday  Times. 

The  success  both  in  England  and  America  of  Mr.  Joaquin  Miller's  "  Songs  of 
the  Sierras"  has  been  uncontested.  The  tide  of  passionate  life  with  which  they 
were  charged,  and  the  fervor  of  poetic  appreciation  and  sympathy  they  displayed, 
combined  with  the  startling  beauty  and  power  of  portions  of  the  workmanship  to 
render  men  insensible  to  irregularities  and  inequalities  of  style.  .  .  .  Here  we  bid 
farewell  to  Mr.  Miller's  delightful  volume.  A  pleasanter  companion  into  the  en- 
chanted gardens  of  poetry  we  do  not  seek.  He  knows 

"  each  lane  and  every  alley  green, 
Dingle  or  bushy  dell  of  the  wild  wood, 
And  every  bosky  bourn  from  side  to  side," 

and  he  conducts  us  to  scenes  to  which  we  have  no  other  guide.  That  Mr.  Miller 
had  poetic  inspiration  his  first  volume  abundantly  proved.  That  his  verse  will  not 
be  a  mere  well  at  which  the  traveller  can  drink  once  ere  pursuing  his  journey,  but 
a  full  river  of  song  hurrying  through  forest  and  meadow,  and  bearing  with  it  carol 
of  bird  and  scent  of  flower  and  hay,  is  now  sufficiently  established. 


From  the  Bookseller. 

Resembling  his  previously  published  collection,  in  that  the  verses  are  prin- 
cipally descriptive  of  strange,  far-away  countries,  and  contain  numerous  bright, 
beautiful  pictures  of  external  nature,  these  songs  of  the  sun-lands  will  be  warmly 
welcomed  as  the  riper  efforts  of  a  real  poet.  .  .  .  And  so  we  might  proceed  through 
poem  after  poem,  finding  images  of  great  and  sterling  poetic  value.  Nor,  perhaps, 
would  it  be  difficult  to  discover  some  that  might  be  called  trivial  and  poor ;  but  w» 
prefer  to  judge  a  writer  by  his  best  rather  than  by  his  worst ;  and  Mr.  Miller's 
best  lines  stamp  him  a  true  man,  —  a  man  of  sympathetic  instincts  and  deep  rev- 
erence for  all  that  is  high  and  noble  in  nature  and  humanity. 


From  the  Nonconformist* 

Of  all  American  poetry  in  recent  years,  that  of  Mr..  Joaquin  Miller  is  the  fresh- 
est He  is  a  new  poet  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term.  He  owes  allegiance  to 
no  transatlantic  masters,  and  he  is  no  servile  imitator  of  the  modern  minstrelsy  of 
our  own  country.  In  outward  form  —  in  the  mechanism  of  his  poetry  —  he  of 
course  follows  the  fashion  of  the  times ;  but  the  spirit  is  new,  the  tone  is  indi- 
vidual and  distinct.  In  his  poems,  for  the  first  time  the  prairies,  the  sierras,  and 
the  new  and  old  life  of  the  Far  West  of  America  have  been  fairly  poetized,  so  to 
speak.  .  .  .  "Songs  of  the  Sun-Lands"  contains  nothing,  perhaps,  superior  to 
"  Arizonian"  in  Mr.  Miller's  "  Songs  of  the  Sierras;"  yet  it  contains  no  poem 
so  crude  as  one  or  two  poems  in  his  former  volume.  The  best  here  is  undoubt- 
edly "  The  Isles  of  the  Amazons."  .  .  .  Notwithstanding  these  defects,  however, 
we  maintain  that  we  have  in  Mr.  Joaquin  Miller  a  new  poet,  who  with  more  culture 
and  higher  aims  is  fully  capable  of  producing  in  the  future  a  poem  that  the  world 
will  not  willingly  let  die. 

From  the  Globe. 

His  poetry  is  in  no  danger  of  suffering  neglect,  nor  is  it  likely  to  lack  admirers. 
By  his  earlier  volume,  "  The  Songs  of  the  Sierras,"  he  fully  proved  his  right  to 
be  heard ;  and  students  of  poetry  have  not  forgotten  the  influence  of  the  fresh 
thought  and  freer  music  his  verse  contained.  That,  in  truth,  was  the  essence  of 
Mr.  Miller's  achievement.  He  had  somehow  broken  away  from  the  ordinary 
standards  of  poetical  composition  without  sacrifice  of  musical  effect.  The  verse 
was  larger  and  with  less  restraint  than  could  be  found  in  other  singers,  moving 
with  a  more  continuous  flow,  and  advancing  in  a  cadence  always  varied  and  not 
recurring.  Something  instructive  in  the  style  seemed  to  image  both  the  singer 
and  the  thing  sung  of,  so  that  we  were  influenced  not  so  much  by  this  or  that  par- 
ticular thought,  as  by  the  romantic  and  picturesque  effect  of  the  whole,  with  its 
fearless  and  confident  description,  and  its  untamed  yet  tuneful  melody.  To  follow 
the  poet  was  like  following  a  keen,  swift  rider,  who  rides  eagerly,  it  matters  not 
whither,  and  who  attracts  us  by  a  wild  grace  and  a  beautiful  skill  as  he  rushes 
through  scenes  of  luxuriant  loveliness  that  would  cause  a  less  impetuous  horseman 
to  pause  and  linger.  That  was  the  character'of  his  verse  as  we  knew  it  in  the 
earlier  volume,  and  that  also  is  its  character  here.  What  was  best  in  the  earlier 
work  is  retained  in  this,  and  it  still  remains  the  best  the  poet  can  do. 

From  the  Morning  Post. 

The  author  appears  to  be  a  true  poet,  with  all  the  natural  fire  and  tenderness 
—  the  spark  and  dew  — that  fall  from  Helicon.  ...  In  the  present  collection  of 
poems,  he  has  largely  contributed  to  his  own  fame,  which  was  already  very  great, 
and  to  the  pleasure  of  all  who  can  listen  with  sympathy  to  the  pathetic  muse  ex- 
pressing her  feelings  in  simple  but  inspired  strains. 


ROBERTS   BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS, 


Boston. 


\*\r\S\,*     *** 


(3) 
Jt  V 


